3 4 5 6 7 11 14 Chancellor Emily Award Winners Jeff Hamada Designs Alumnus Profile: How Soon Is Now? Student Exchange/ Black + White Bash Installation Ceremony For Converse Simon Chang Mobility Program spring 2009 published by emily carr university’s advancement office vısıons COURTNEY L HAE C MI ll I H KHAREN Honorary Doctorates: Stan Douglas and Sarah McLachlan Robin Laurence Visual artist Stan Douglas and musician-singer- Reached by cellphone in a cab on his way to the airport songwriter Sarah McLachlan, this year’s recipients of (he was due to exhibit his Cuban-shot film project the Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr, Inconsolable Memories at the Havana Biennial), could hardly represent more diverse practices. And yet Douglas speaks about interests and influences while they have in common stellar successes in their he was an art student. They include Samuel Beckett, individual fields and an imperative to use their creative Robert Venturi, Miles Davis and an instructor, Stephen powers to illuminate the human condition. Clark, who introduced him to phenomenology. Clearly, these formative influences have served him well: Douglas, who was born in Vancouver and was a Douglas’s lengthy cv lists nearly 50 solo exhibitions, in student at what was then Emily Carr College of Art and museums and galleries from Barcelona to Bangkok and Design from 1979 until 1982, is renowned for the from Venice to Chicago. His work has appeared three intellectual rigour and visual complexity of his video times each at Documenta and the Venice Biennale, has and film projections. His media installations, which been collected worldwide, and has been the subject of may also incorporate still photography, range across a countless acclamatory books, catalogues, feature number of themes and subjects, from urban articles and reviews. development to Sigmund Freud’s theory of the uncanny and from failed utopias to the free jazz Douglas’s current project, an eight- by 13-metre movement in France in the 1960s. As Daina Augaitis, photo-mural on glass for the redeveloped Woodward’s chief curator of Vancouver Art Gallery, has observed, site, examines the Gastown Riots of 1971. Also known “Stan is tackling really big issues, things that have to as “The Battle of Maple Tree Square,” the riots occurred do with how we function as a society.” when Vancouver police violently broke up a pot- smoking, counter-culture protest. Douglas sees these Whatever his apparent subject, Douglas consistently events as a “crucial” moment in the subsequent reimagines history, disrupting and rearranging images dereliction of the area around what was once the and narratives. “I’m just trying to understand through thriving Woodward’s department store. “It was the history the condition that we’re in today,” he says end of people there having an investment in the simply. Ignorance of our past, he suggests, can be neighbourhood,” he says of the riots, revealing the disastrous for our present and our future. impetus behind his most recent reimagining of history. //CONTINUED ON PAGE 2. 03626881 1399 JOHNstON Street, VANCOUver, BC CANADA www.ecuad.ca Honorary Emily Carr’s Bright Future Doctorates: A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT + VICE-ChaNCELLOR Dr. Ron Burnett, RCA Stan Douglas and Emily Carr University of Emily Carr will also be partnering with VANOC in the Art + Design has, for mounting of a large exhibit during the Olympics. Sarah McLachlan nearly 85 years, fulfilled Designed to showcase the creativity of national and // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 the mission of educating international artists from all disciplines who use some of the best artists digital media in their works, CODE on the Ground and designers in British promises to be a uniquely engaging event that Born and raised in Halifax, Sarah McLachlan Columbia and Canada. One enables a wide range of audiences to communicate studied voice, piano and guitar as a child and of the most important and interact with works of art as never before. We enjoyed musical success while still in high reasons that we have are also partnering with Visa in an exciting Olympic school, fronting a rock band called The October been so successful has project that will provide our students with a variety Game. She left her studies at Nova Scotia been as a result of the of wonderful opportunities. In addition, we are College of Art and Design after two semesters support that we have putting together an exhibition in the Charles H. Scott to accept a recording contract with Nettwerk received from the Gallery on Canadian design history. Records. McLachlan then moved to Vancouver community and from the provincial government. where she built her reputation as one of this Notwithstanding many of the challenges that we face, Over the last few months, Emily Carr has reinvented country’s most outstanding musicians. Her Emily Carr attracts not only some of the best students in itself. We now have four Faculties: Culture and distinctive brand of what Rolling Stone Canada and internationally, but also the best faculty and Community, Design and Dynamic Media, Visual Art and describes as “lush, moody folk pop” has staff. We are B.C.’s Centre of Excellence in art and design Material Practice, and Graduate Studies and Research. earned her three Grammy awards and eight and that is manifested in our advocacy for the arts and These Faculties will lead the way in developing new Juno awards during her 20-year, multi- powerful role played by our alumni in all aspects of the curricula for Emily Carr that will link sustainable platinum recording career. cultural life of BC and Canada. principles with learning, creativity with social engagement, lifelong learning with studio practices and McLachlan is also famous for founding the One of my most important activities as President is to academic breadth with research and practical multi-artist festival Lilith Fair, which toured give the broader public an understanding and outcomes. Our curriculum will be even more rigourous North America for three summers in the late appreciation of the importance of the arts for the than it is now, and more interdisciplinary. Our goal is to 1990s. Conceived as a way to spotlight and well-being of our society and to involve Emily Carr in prepare students not only to be artists and designers, promote women in music, it played to some projects that will have genuine social and economic but also to be able to seek whatever career best suits two million viewers and raised more than $7 benefits. So, it was with great delight that I recently their creative abilities. The next five years promise to be million in support of charities and women’s signed a memorandum of agreement with BC Children’s challenging, invigorating and best of all unique as Emily shelters across the continent. The Lilith Fair Hospital that will establish a strategic partnership to Carr moves towards its 90th year! project pitched McLachlan into the media focus on collaborative design research projects. We are spotlight and earned her the Elizabeth Cady already working on the development of a new approach Stanton Visionary Award for advancing the to oxygen delivery in Africa, as well as developing a new careers of women in music. The singer- model for patient tracking in the emergency area of the songwriter has also been honoured with the hospital. We will be jointly approaching a number of Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia foundations for financial support. Health device design and, most recently, the Allan Waters based on sustainable principles is one of our great Humanitarian Award. strengths at Emily Carr. As these honours attest, McLachlan’s outstanding creative contributions have been mirrored by her committed work for a number of local, national and international charities. In 1999, she established the Sarah McLachlan Foundation to support local music outreach programs for children and youth in underserved communities. Through benefit concerts, public appearances, videos and the Our New Identity - Unveiled! loan of her music, she has also supported children’s networks, animal protection agencies, and a range of international relief and development organizations. When her most recent humanitarian award was announced, McLachlan said, “I feel so lucky and blessed in my life and giving back feels right and good— it’s the best way I know to thank the universe.” To accompany Emily Carr’s recent university status and In addition to the print logo, Cari also created an name change, we’ve revamped our identity! Created by animated logo. The inspiration behind the light in-house designer, Cari Bird, the new identity celebrates animation grew from the desire to make the logo Emily Carr’s vision, energy and innovation. In developing flexible and alterable, and, to reflect our involvement in the new logo, Cari adhered to a strict design brief and the growing area of new media. The light animation was consulted with a number of internal and external produced under the art direction of Cari Bird, with the community members; one of the key guidelines was to assistance of Associate professor Martin Rose and remain true to the name of Emily Carr, and the creative Animation Technician Stephen Wichuk, 3rd year Emily and innovative roots of the school. Carr students Chelsea Ker and Hsiao-Chuang (Chloe) Liu. The final light animation was produced by alumnus The logo has two elements - the wordmark and the Ryan Schwitzer. graphic. The graphic is organic in nature, allowing it to grow with the University as we move, transition, and The new identity provides opportunities for all of us to respond to the inherent nature of artists and designers shape and bend in innovative ways as we move further who desire a variety of interpretations and visual into the 21st century.